Palestinian Killed in West Bank as Thousands Protest War in Gaza

RAMALLAH, West Bank - Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian protester and wounded about 200 on Thursday as several thousand people demonstrated in the occupied West Bank against a 17-day-old Israeli offensive in Gaza, Palestinian medical officials said. Israel Radio said the protest appeared to be the largest since the end of a 2000-2005 Palestinian uprising.

The Israeli military confirmed troops had used "riot dispersal means" against protesters who threw rocks and firebombs at them and blocked a road with burning tires. The protest erupted after allies of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement marched from the West Bank city of Ramallah to the edges of Jerusalem in protest against Israel's war against Hamas militants in Gaza where the Palestinian death toll has neared 800. Israeli troops have killed two other Palestinians this week in smaller confrontations in the West Bank, territory Israel captured along with Gaza in a 1967 war. Police also confronted Palestinian protesters in and near the old walled city, including outside a flash point holy site revered by Muslims and Jews.